Australia: international campaign

To fight the fires we need to fight this government

The Australian government and so called
opposition are in complete denial about the impact that climate change is
already having on the country. While the Prime Minister and government deny any
connection between climate change and the current disaster, the Labor Party
does everything possible to ingratiate itself with the fossil fuel and mining
industry. Australia’s ruling class is especially tied-up with some of the most criminal
global polluters.

The scale of the fires now burning Australia
is unprecedented. This scale of destruction of ecological systems, animal life
and communities has never before been seen. Many communities and stretches of
forest and land will burn for months to come, and the risk of a long summer
inferno seems eminently likely.

These fires were a predictable consequence of
climate change. For over a decade, the cool wet weather fronts that previously
brought rains, have been moving further south. This had long been a predicted
outcome of the impact of global warming on local weather patterns. There is no
guarantee that these rains will return. This is to say nothing of the growing
desertification of important river systems and continuing decline of biodiversity,
and its impact.

The social impact of these fires is
tremendous. Toxic smoke has covered an area as large as Western Europe and in
the case of Sydney and now Canberra, the health impacts will likely reach into
many years to come. Sydney’s air pollution has been dangerously high for weeks, and Canberra
has topped the global rankings for polluted air quality.

As per usual, the neoliberal government and
political parties have other priorities. Government spending is for promoting “investment”
and making profits, not for fighting fires, and helping ordinary working people
and communities.

Fire fighting services are woefully
under-funded and under-prepared; often relying on under-trained and
under-resourced volunteers. While some firefighters have had to work with paper
masks, the government gifts $12 billion dollars every year to the fossil fuel
companies. The military is funded for wars in the Middle East and to capture
and imprison refugees, but can barely be mobilised with the necessary urgency to
evacuate communities under threat of life.

To fight the fires we need to fight this
government. Morrison – like his global counterparts, Bolsonaro, Piñera,
Trump – have to go! We have no chance of preventing the disastrous impacts of
global warming while neoliberals rule our lives.

The cost of these fires is impossible to
fathom right now. But we know that there will need to be massive compensation
and investment to regenerate bushlands, rebuild homes and infrastructure,
improve fire services, and support health affected communities.

The government and fossil fuel industry must
pay! We should not have to organise street collections and community
fundraisers – the corporations that have caused these fires should foot the
bill!